CriticalCVE-2018-6530

    D-Link Multiple Routers OS Command Injection Vulnerability (CVE-2018-6530)

    Published In CISA KEV since Sources: CVE.org

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    What is affected, what to do

    The CVE-2018-6530 vulnerability allows OS command injection in multiple D-Link routers, enabling attackers to execute arbitrary commands remotely via the service parameter. This affects firmware versions 1.08B04 and earlier on models DIR-880L, DIR-868L, DIR-865L, and DIR-860L. The vulnerability is actively exploited in ransomware campaigns, highlighting the need for immediate action. Affected organizations should update their devices to the latest firmware versions to mitigate the risk of exploitation.

    The vulnerability is being actively exploited; treat it as a priority. CISA lists it as used in ransomware campaigns. The available sources name no fixed version. Check the vendor guidance in the references below. Immediate actions, mitigation and detection rules are in the runbook below.

    Affected
    • D-Link Dir-860L Firmware lte *..1.10b04
    • D-Link DIR-865L Firmware Reva Firmware Patch 1.08.B01 lte *..1.08b01
    • D-Link DIR-868L FIRMWARE lte *..1.12b04
    • D-Link DIR-880L Firmware lte *..1.08b04

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    Metrics

    9.8

    Priority

    XIEM Effective CVSS: highest available CVSS rating from NVD and vendor data.

    Source: NVD, CVSS v3

    9.8

    CVSS v3

    Severity Critical on the scale from 0 to 10.

    Source: CVE.org

    96.7 %

    EPSS score

    High — model estimates ≥ 50% chance of real-world exploitation within 30 days.

    Source: FIRST EPSS, percentile 99.88

    Show all metrics
    Severity
    Critical
    Priority (0–325)

    The priority score is a consolidated metric that condenses several individual signals into a single, action-guiding ranking: technical severity (CVSS), exploitation likelihood (EPSS), known-exploited status (KEV) and the context of the affected asset. The aim is to answer the only truly important question in vulnerability management: what first?

    Read in glossary
    253.81 Methodology
    Exploit maturity

    An exploit is code or a technique that specifically uses a concrete vulnerability to force unintended behaviour — such as executing code or escalating privileges. It is the tool that turns a theoretical flaw into a practical attack.

    Read in glossary
    actively exploited
    XIEM Effective CVSS

    XIEM® is the tiered managed-security operating model from NEOSEC and a registered trademark of NEOSEC GmbH. It extends classic SIEM — the central collection, normalisation and correlation of security-relevant events — with endpoint forensics, network visibility and deception technology, and consolidates them into three building tiers: Sentry, Orchestrate and Command.

    Read in glossary
    9.8 Methodology
    CVSS v3

    CVSS is the globally established, open standard for assessing the technical severity of a vulnerability on a scale from 0 to 10. It describes how easily a flaw can be exploited and what damage it can cause — but not how likely its actual exploitation is. CVSS and the complementary EPSS deliberately answer different questions.

    Read in glossary
    9.8
    EPSS score

    The EPSS score is the absolute model output for an individual vulnerability: the estimated probability of real-world exploitation within the next 30 days, expressed as a value between 0 and 1 (i.e. 0 % to 100 %). A score of 0.42 means „the model estimates a 42 % chance of real-world exploitation within 30 days“.

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    96.7 %
    High — model estimates ≥ 50% chance of real-world exploitation within 30 days.
    EPSS percentile

    The EPSS percentile is the relative position of a vulnerability within all EPSS-scored CVEs, expressed as a value between 0 and 1. A percentile of 0.90 means „this CVE has a higher EPSS score than 90 % of all other scored CVEs“. Unlike the EPSS score, it is not a probability — but a positioning within a ranking.

    Read in glossary
    99.88
    Critical — this CVE ranks in the top fifth of all CVEs scored today (rank ≥ 80%).
    KEV status

    The KEV catalogue is a list maintained by the US authority CISA of vulnerabilities for which active exploitation in the wild has been confirmed. It answers not the question „how severe?“ but „is it already being attacked?“ — thereby sharply prioritising patching.

    Read in glossary
    Actively exploited
    Published
    In CISA KEV since

    The KEV catalogue is a list maintained by the US authority CISA of vulnerabilities for which active exploitation in the wild has been confirmed. It answers not the question „how severe?“ but „is it already being attacked?“ — thereby sharply prioritising patching.

    Read in glossary
    CISA assessment (SSVC)
    Exploitation: active · automatable · Technical impact: total
    Source: CISA Vulnrichment, as of 4 February 2025
    CWE

    CWE is a catalogue of typical weakness types in software and hardware — such as flawed input validation, unsafe memory handling or poor authentication. Where a CVE names a concrete vulnerability in a concrete product, a CWE describes the underlying class of defect.

    Read in glossary
    CWE-78

    Response and mitigation

    Why act now?

    Prioritisation rationale

    This CVE is on CISA KEV and flagged as used in ransomware campaigns against SOHO and edge infrastructure — the typical pattern is mass, unauthenticated takeover from the internet, followed by enlistment into IoT botnets (Mirai derivatives) or use as a pivot into home-office and branch networks. The flaw is network-reachable without authentication, yields full device compromise, and is among the CVEs with very high exploitation likelihood observed in the wild — treat every internet-exposed instance as P1 for immediate patching, isolation or replacement. For NIS2-scoped organisations, home-office routers used to reach corporate resources fall into scope and must be covered by the same remediation deadline.

    1. Runbook step 1

      Immediate response (0-24 h)

      • Inventory sweep: locate every D-Link DIR-860L, DIR-865L, DIR-868L and DIR-880L on your estate via DHCP fingerprints, SNMP sysDescr and HTTP banners (look for „Mathopd/1.5p6"). Pay particular attention to branch offices, home-office uplinks and any OT environment relying on consumer-grade routing.
      • Cut WAN exposure immediately: block inbound TCP/80, TCP/443 and UDP/1900 (UPnP) at the upstream carrier or ISP firewall for every affected device. The flaw in soap.cgi (soapcgi_main in cgibin, parameter service) is unauthenticated and remotely reachable.
      • Firmware status: treat DIR-880L up to 1.08B04, DIR-868L up to 1.12b04, DIR-865L up to 1.08.B01 and DIR-860L up to 1.10b04 as vulnerable. Most of these models are end-of-life at D-Link — check the vendor support portal per hardware revision (REVA/REVB) and apply any available patch; if none exists, replace the device.
      • Rotate all admin credentials on affected routers, explicitly disable WAN-side admin GUI, and switch off UPnP.
      • If compromise is suspected: disconnect the device, export the config for forensics, perform a factory reset and re-flash. Persistence via modified DNS entries, extra iptables rules or injected cron jobs is well documented for this device class.

    2. Runbook step 2

      Mitigation layers

      • Network segmentation: classify affected routers as untrusted. Place the client networks behind them in a dedicated VLAN with egress filtering on an enterprise firewall; expose internal services (AD, file shares, OT HMIs) only via VPN with MFA.
      • Perimeter IPS/Suricata rule: match HTTP POST/GET to /soap.cgi carrying shell metacharacters (;, |, `, $() in the service parameter. Example: alert http any any -> any any (msg:"CVE-2018-6530 D-Link soap.cgi command injection"; flow:to_server,established; http.uri; content:"/soap.cgi"; http.request_body; pcre:"/service=[^&]*[;|$()]/i"; sid:1002018653; rev:1;)`.
      • DNS hardening: force outbound DNS from router management interfaces through internal resolvers; drop direct outbound UDP/53 at the firewall to detect and break hijacked DNS pointers (a classic payload following SOHO router RCE).
      • Configuration hardening: disable WAN admin GUI, remote management, UPnP, HNAP where possible and WPS; set a strong admin password (>16 chars); change or disable SNMP community strings.
      • Lifecycle decision: for EoL devices without vendor patch, replacement is the only sustainable control. Document the business-owner risk acceptance per ISO 27001 A.8.9 (Configuration Management) and the NIS2 duty to „remediate vulnerabilities".

    3. Runbook step 3

      Detection rules

      • Perimeter logs: alert on HTTP requests to /soap.cgi or /cgi-bin/soap.cgi from the internet toward your router IP ranges. KQL shape: CommonSecurityLog | where RequestURL has "soap.cgi" and RequestMethod in ("POST","GET") | where RequestBody matches regex @"service=.*[;|\x60$()]".
      • NetFlow/Zeek: flag outbound sessions from router management IPs to known Mirai/Mozi/Dark.IoT C2 ports (TCP/23, TCP/2323, TCP/48101, TCP/7547) or Tor entry nodes. Zeek conn.log filter: id.orig_h in router_subnet and id.resp_p in {23,2323,48101}.
      • DNS telemetry: sudden changes in the resolver used by LAN clients (differing from the DHCP-assigned one), or very short TTLs on responses for banking or Microsoft domains, strongly suggest a DNS-hijack payload after successful RCE.
      • Credential monitoring: if the device forwards syslog, correlate successful or failed admin GUI logins originating from WAN zone as UserLoginSuccess src_zone=WAN.
      • Threat-intel enrichment: check router WAN IPs against honeypot feeds (GreyNoise, Shadowserver „Vulnerable D-Link"); a hit indicates active opportunistic scanning against the device.

    Detection rules

    No NEOSEC detection rule is available for this vulnerability yet.

    Classification under NIS2 and CRA

    Rule-based classification from exploitation status and severity. It does not replace a case-by-case assessment.

    NIS2

    NIS2 is EU Directive (EU) 2022/2555 to raise the level of cybersecurity across the Union. It substantially broadens obligations compared with the first NIS directive: more sectors, mandatory risk management, staged reporting duties and personal accountability of senior management.

    Read in glossary
    Actively exploited: treat the vulnerability as a priority in vulnerability handling under Art. 21(2)(e) NIS2. If it is exploited in your environment, check the reporting obligation under Art. 23 (early warning within 24 hours).
    CRA

    The CRA is EU Regulation (EU) 2024/2847 setting horizontal cybersecurity requirements for „products with digital elements“ — from industrial controllers and software to connected consumer devices. For the first time manufacturers must ensure security across the entire product lifecycle, handle vulnerabilities and provide security updates.

    Read in glossary
    Since 11.09.2026, manufacturers of affected products with digital elements must report actively exploited vulnerabilities under Art. 14 CRA, with an early warning within 24 hours via ENISA's single reporting platform.
    ISO/IEC 27001

    ISO/IEC 27001 is the internationally leading standard for an information security management system (ISMS). It describes a risk-based, process-oriented framework to systematically plan, implement, review and improve information security.

    Read in glossary
    Control A.8.8, management of technical vulnerabilities: assess relevance to your systems, plan remediation and keep evidence.

    Description

    OS command injection vulnerability in soap.cgi (soapcgi_main in cgibin) in D-Link DIR-880L DIR-880L_REVA_FIRMWARE_PATCH_1.08B04 and previous versions, DIR-868L DIR868LA1_FW112b04 and previous versions, DIR-65L DIR-865L_REVA_FIRMWARE_PATCH_1.08.B01 and previous versions, and DIR-860L DIR860LA1_FW110b04 and previous versions allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary OS commands via the service parameter.

    Source: NVD (NIST), cvelistv5, CISA KEV Catalog

    Vendors and products

    Affected operating systems

    Affected operating systems
    Otherdlinkdir-860l_firmware—
    Otherdlinkdir-865l_firmware—
    Otherdlinkdir-868l_firmware—
    Otherdlinkdir-880l_firmware—

    Weakness classes (CWE)

    • CWE-78Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an OS Command ('OS Command Injection')

      Base

      The product constructs all or part of an OS command using externally-influenced input from an upstream component, but it does not neutralize or incorrectly neutralizes special elements that could modify the intended OS command when it is sent to a downstream component.

      Entry at MITRE CWE-78

    Public exploit references

    Publicly reported proof-of-concepts, exploit modules and detection templates for this vulnerability. NEOSEC links to the original sources only and does not provide any exploit code.

    Public exploit references
    CISA KEV CatalogCISA Known Exploited Vulnerability (opens in a new tab)cisa.govactively exploited
    Reference tagged as exploitgithub.com (opens in a new tab)PoC (publicly reported)reported, not verified—

    References & sources

    • github.comTheBeeMan/Pwning-multiple-dlink-router-via-SOAP-protox_refsource_MISC, Exploit, Third-party advisory
    • cisa.govknown-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2018-6530government-resource, US government resource
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